Browsing by Subject "Narrative writing"

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    Cohesion in the Narrative Writing of Young EFL Learners: Correct and Incorrect Use of Local Cohesive Ties
    (The Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies (AEDEAN), 2021-06-28) Férez Mora, Pedro Antonio; Coyle, Yvette; Solís Becerra, Juan Antonio; Didáctica de la Lengua y la Literatura
    This study examines the correct and incorrect use of local cohesive ties and local cohesion errors in the written narratives of eleven- to twelve-year-old Spanish learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at different proficiency levels. The study was carried out with pairs who collaboratively wrote a narrative text in response to a picture prompt. The young learners’ written texts were examined to identify their correct and incorrect use of four categories: lexical, referential, conjunctive and temporal cohesion. The results show that higher and lower proficiency learners are significantly different in their use of the causal conjunction because, personal pronouns and noun phrases containing possessive, definite, indefinite and zero determiners. The two groups also differ in their incorrect use of pronouns, simple verb forms and noun phrases containing definite, indefinite and zero determiners. Attention is drawn to the need to explore the diversity in young learners’ use of cohesion and some pedagogical implications are drawn.
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    Improving reference cohesion in young EFL learners’ collaboratively written narratives: Is there a role for reformulation
    (Elsevier, 2020-07-31) Coyle, Yvette; Solís Becerra, Juan Antonio; Férez Mora, Pedro Antonio; Didáctica de la Lengua y la Literatura
    This article reports an empirical study in which we explore the role played by reformulation as a written corrective feedback technique on the use of reference cohesion in the collaboratively written narratives of young foreign language learners. The study was carried out with 11-to-12-year-old low proficiency pairs divided into a reformulation (RG) and a control group (CG), all of whom engaged in two multi-stage writing and feedback tasks over a three-month period. Features of reference cohesion were examined in four sets of narrative picture-story texts written by all the children before and after a treatment period during which the RG pairs completed a weekly writing task and received reformulated feedback, which they compared with their original drafts. The CG pairs also performed the weekly writing task and self-edited their texts. Results showed that the feedback proved useful in significantly promoting the accurate use of pronominal reference and sequence markers in the L2 by RG pairs and in contributing to a significant decrease in the misuse of articles in comparison to the CG. These findings are discussed and conclusions drawn for the role of reformulation in fostering cohesion in children’s L2 writing.